An environmentally beneficial process for the production of fuels and chemicals employs carbon dioxide from a natural source or from an artificial chemical source that would otherwise be discharged into the environment. The carbon dioxide is converted to formic acid and the formic acid is then non-biologically converted to fuels and/or chemicals without the intermediate process of hydrogenating the formic acid to methanol or reacting the formic acid with ammonia to form formamide. In the present process, formic acid is converted to one of seven primary feedstocks: formaldehyde, acrylic acid, methane, ethylene, propylene, syngas, and C5-C7 carbohydrates. The formaldehyde, acrylic acid, methane, ethylene, propylene, syngas and/or short chain carbohydrates can either be used directly, or can be converted into a wealth of other products.

Electrochemical devices comprising electrocatalyst mixtures include at least one Catalytically Active Element and, as a separate constituent, one Helper Catalyst. The electrocatalysts can be used to increase the rate, modify the selectivity or lower the overpotential of chemical reactions. These electrocatalysts are useful for a variety of chemical reactions including, in particular, the electrochemical conversion of CO

An electrocatalytic process for carbon dioxide conversion includes combining a Catalytically Active Element and Helper Catalyst in the presence of carbon dioxide, allowing a reaction to proceed to produce a reaction product, and applying electrical energy to said reaction to achieve electrochemical conversion of said reactant to said reaction product. The Catalytically Active Element can be a metal in the form of supported or unsupported particles or flakes with an average size between 0.6 nm and 100 nm. the reaction products comprise at least one of CO, HCO

A device that can produce carbon monoxide for therapeutic and laboratory applications is disclosed. The device includes and electrochemical cell that converts carbon dioxide or a carbon dioxide containing molecule such as a carbonate or bicarbonate or bicarbonate into carbon monoxide and oxygen. The cell contains additives so pure carbon monoxide is obtained.